life is sweet • life is colorful — Nikki Rappaport

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I slept with my windows open last night and let the cool, crisp air fill my apartment. It kind of happened really fast, but fall is here. Put the #PSL craze aside (I only ask for one pump…it’s way too sweet), I just love the warmth and anticipation I feel from the color pumpkin spice. You can get in other ways than a latte: a glass of bourbon, a new hair color, soft leather. Here are some of my current favorites…

Oh hey happy April! I’m still on a bit of an orange kick last week after I made these orange ricotta dessert pizzas. So to try out a different citrus/cheese combo, I made this orange poppy seed mascarpone pound cake. I think the mascarpone makes it pretty rich, but I still enjoyed having a small slice of it for breakfast, or as a dinner/dessert combo after a long day at work. This would be perfect for a weekend brunch with friends paired with prosecco and a savory bread pudding.

I just love the fresh and bright orange flavor – a perfect way to welcome spring.

Orange Poppy Seed Mascarpone Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup poppy seeds

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated orange zest from a medium orange

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, from the same orange

8 oz. container of mascarpone cheese

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Greece a loaf pan and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer add sugar and orange zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest and sugar together so it’s blended and fragrant. Add mascarpone, eggs, vanilla, and vegetable and beat on medium speed until combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet mixture until fully combined.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 45-50 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I love Italian desserts and pastries. Cannoli, tri-color cookies, zeppole, a biscotti with my coffee. But one of my absolute favorites is sfogliatelle. The delicate layers and laters of pastry are great, but the best part I think is the ricotta filling with a hint of orange. If you haven’t had one of these, find your local Italian shop and hunt one down. Seriously.

So for some reason, I’ve been craving this orange ricotta filling like crazy. And while I’d love to spend an entire day learning how to make sfogliatelle myself, let’s be real…no time for that. But I do have time for a little pizza night. Buying the dough at the grocery store or local pizza shop helps cut some corners and let’s you focus on the creative part.

I also thought pizza dough would be a great vehicle for my orange ricotta fix. I made two little pies, both topped with some slices strawberries, one drizzled in honey and the other drizzled in dark chocolate. I couldn’t tell you which one I liked more. Actually, I was so excited about these dessert pizzas that I ate them before my savory dinner pizza. Oops.

(In case you were curious, for my savory pizza, I sautéed some pancetta and tomatoes in olive oil and garlic and spooned that over my dough which was already covered in fresh mozzarella slices. After it cooked, I topped it with some fresh spinach. Yum!)

Ok, but on to the highlight…dessert! Now what can I make next to continue satisfying my orange ricotta craving? Send me your ideas!

Orange Ricotta Dessert Pizzas

Pizza Dough (of course store bought is totally fine)

Ricotta cheese

Orange for zesting

Sugar

Strawberries for garnish

Honey

Dark Chocolate, melted

In a small bowl, mix ricotta (about 4 oz for two small pizzas), orange zest (however much flavor you want), and about a tablespoon of sugar. Form small pizza rounds, top with ricotta mixture, and bake on a pizza stone at about 400° for 8 minutes. Top with strawberries, another sprinkle of sugar, and drizzle with either honey or dark chocolate.

(Note: These also would be great on a grill, and maybe that way you’d get the charred marks on the dough that I failed to get in my oven.)

This post is long overdue but oh well. I’ve received many questions about my studio apartment tour in the Everygirl (mostly about my pink ikat rug!), so I wanted to share a few more photos and provide some of the sources too. My favorite place to shop for my apartment is Home Goods (and Craigslist too), so a lot of those things can’t be sourced. But if I left out anything, leave me a comment and I’ll tell you where it’s from.

A wall of windows really provides great light in my apartment and makes it feel so much bigger than it is.

French pillow | Coffee table and side table: found on Craigslist | Couch: passed down from a friend | Gray fleece chairs: Bloomingdales from the 1980s | metallic pillows from Urban Outfitters (old)

For my wallpaper entry, I tore out full pages of magazines with images I love – food (the fired chicken photo might be my favorite), fashion, interiors, cute boys, colorful designs – and using double sided tape, I put them up in rows. I think there’s about 150 pages up on the wall. I can easily remove one image if I find another one I like.

Also, how embarrassing. I forgot to clean up that messy area above my fridge where I store bags of chips and pans. Oops. :)

If you haven’t already, head over to the Everygirl and read more about my apartment.

Oh, and if you want to see something hilarious, check out this post from 2009 where I share some photos from my then brand new apartment. It feels nice to look back and see how both my apartment and I have grown.